The Regulars: Camera Obscura still makes a big impression on tourists

Robert Tacchetto, 62, nimbly climbs up a ladder and opens a small, oval hinged door to the lens that projects live images of Ocean Beach, Seal Rock, Cliff House and Point Lobos down to a parabolic table in the giant camera. He wipes it clean for visitors that day.

Tacchetto has operated the Camera Obscura for over 22 years. He took over after his father passed away after obtaining the concession in 1992.

“It’s the family business so you have to continue on. It’s for other members of the family,” Tacchetto said of his connection to the giant camera. “It’s a little more pressure that way.”

The wide eyes on people’s faces and their smiles and gasps still thrill Tacchetto. “You know they’ve never seen anything like that. That’s the fun part,” he said.

But the pressure of running the family business is increased because weather is a factor and there’s a lack of visitors. There used to be a lot more tourists when Playland at the Beach was in business down the road.

The Regulars: Camera Obscura still makes a big impression...

1of5Robert Tacchetto opens the door to the lens of the Giant Camera to clean it before opening for business.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

2of5A visitor checks out the holograms on the wall at the Camera Obscura.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

3of5Loree Spina (l to r)and her son Dante Spina, 12, both of Sonoma, try to check out the lens projecting the image into the parabolic table at the Camera Obscura on Friday, January 19, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle

4of5The Camera Obscura sits on the edge of a cliff over the Pacific Ocean.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

5of5Visitors gaze into the parabolic table to view the image projected from the lens at the Camera Obscura.Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

On a recent sunny brisk winter Friday, 12 year-old Dante Spina raced around the exterior of the camera during a visit.

Tacchetto knew immediately what the young visitor was trying to do and directed him to stand by a wall where his mother could see him focus.

“I’ll stop the lens so your mom can see you,” he told Sonoma resident who came to San Francisco that day specifically to visit the attraction.

“We literally came to the city today to see the giant camera,” said his mother, Loree Spina, who wanted her son to be able to walk through a camera and learn about the origins of photography, a subject he was studying at Khan Academy’s Pixar In a Box.

“I could tell right away that it wasn’t a video,” said Dante. “You can see the difference. It’s so smooth!”

Loree Spina, who is herself a photographer, and her son were researching virtual and pinhole cameras when she came across the Camera Obscura online. She initially thought she would be viewing a projection on a wall and was impressed by the 3-D effect and live view.

The Regulars

Loree Spina wanted Dante to the see the roots of photography not just experience digital photos.

“We need to go back to the origins of something in this technological age when we are so disconnected from our origins of technology,” she explained. “There is something fun about images with technological imperfections. These filters (used in apps) are meant to make images look like the ones made with toy cameras we used to use,” she said.

Watch an accompanying video at www.sfchronicle.com/theregulars. The Regulars is a photo and video column that offers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people in the Bay Area, caught in routine activities of modern urban life.